| Decentralisation and the Local State: Political Economy of Local Government in Bangladesh |
| Author: Dr. Tofail Ahmed Publisher: Agamee Prokashani, 36 Bangla Bazar, Dhaka 1000 |
| Price: BDT 800/- only or Download Free Copy |
| Download CopyDecentralisation and the Local State is the first book of its kind in Bangladesh that deals the issue from rigorous theoretical perspectives and real practical experiences. The first three chapters provide detail theoretical mapping on decentralisation and local government in relation to the different theoretical dimensions of state, class, capital, crisis from Marxist and non-Marxist discourses. In Bangladesh the theoretical discourse of ‘local state’ is introduced for the first time through the study in the form of this book. This is a single book which enmeshed many individual disciplines such as Political Science, Development Economics, Political History, Political Sociology, Urban sociology, Development Anthropology and Public Administration together towards providing the study of local politics, local state and central-local relations a new direction with a new focus on political economy. The study begins with very broad global canvas but ends with very specific focus on Bangladesh with a detail political history of its local governance. The Theories of decentralisation have been examined from three other rhetorical lenses i.e. democracy, development and the politics too. Readers may get amazed to find many pertinent comparative analyses at different points with India, Nepal, Sri Lanka to Europe especially the UK as well as different African and Latin American countries regarding various developments of decentralization and local government. |
“… a thoroughly researched study which combines theoretical and empirical bases well. Based on hard data he has shown that decentralization has not resulted in de-bureaucratization, deregulation or de-statisation. On the country, re-bureaucratization, re-regulation, re-statisation, disenfranchisement and debilitation of the masses have taken place on a rather large scale.” Prof. Mohammad Mohabbat Khan, Dhaka University, Economic and Political Weekly, April 29, 1995 |
“The book is a useful contribution to the already vast literature on decentralization for two reasons. Firstly, it provides a detailed account of the nature and impact of the recent local government reforms in Bangladesh … and secondly, it demonstrates the need to look at decentralization and local government from a political economy perspective, rather than adopting either a purely ‘Administrative’ or a naively ‘populist’ approach. Such a contribution is particularly relevant at the present point in time, when decentralization is yet again being advocated as a strategy for development- this time by international agencies, including both the World Bank, … and UNDP (compare UNDP, 1993) .In both cases, decentralization is seen as a means of reducing the role of central governments and fostering more democratic and participatory political and economic institutions.”Diana Conyers, IDS, Sussex |
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